Let's Talk About *GASP* GAMES!

Mr. GameBrain

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Aug 10, 2009
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random_bars said:
Mr. GameBrain said:
We've already seen how well this sort of strategy works with Double Fine.
Psychonauts and Brutal Legend were commercial failures (despite being good games in their own right), but their XBLA games have performed extremely well.
I see this all the time but I really don't think I've seen any evidence that it's actually true. Sure, having multiple projects has seemingly helped keep the lights on at Double Fine: getting a game cancelled means they have to find new work for a quarter of the company, not the entire company.

But the games themselves? I don't think they've made anywhere NEAR the impact that Psychonauts or Brutal Legend did. I personally don't think they were nearly as good as those games either. And in terms of popularity, I'm sure they sold enough to make a little profit but they didn't exactly drown the company in money, and they certainly didn't take off like some other similarly sized games have (Bastion comes to mind).

The Kickstarter project definitely DID kick off in a big way, but Costume Quest, Stacking and Iron Brigade? I don't think so, really, and I haven't seen anything to suggest otherwise (apart from people parroting your words on forums and stuff). Seriously, you might well be right, but what makes you think so?
You are probably right, and I am likely exagerrating.
But I should imagine they were successful to a good degree, else they would have stopped after their first XBLA release.

I think due to the size of their company, (the money troubles they mentioned at the start of their documentary due to the cancellation of a project), the labour fees were sapping into those profits a bit.
That being said though, had their retail projects beforehand had been more successful, they probably would not have needed a kickstarter. (I guess publishers don't have a lot of faith in them, and those projects had some real tough problems to get through (Brutal Legend for instance, they had a massive problem with their original publisher Activision, who dropped them mid-development, which prompted lawsuits on both sides, especially when EA picked the game back up))

Taking that into account, and the fact that the development time for the XBLA games was much shorter, its not suprising the quality took a bit of a hit.

I still think smaller teams with good sized budgets and a couple of years of development time will be the best way forward for the industry.
(Especially a nice marketing budget. Enough to get noticed and to be played around with, but not too big to be a waste of resources (A lot of "AAA" companies must waste a ridiculous amount of cash on advertisements that they couldn't even measure the success of. Cash that probably could fund several smaller projects! XD)

I don't really know though. I guess I want to believe that building a good portfoilio and fanbase in the long-term leads to eventual financial success. (Being a wannabe game dev, I have to believe that! XD)
 

SextusMaximus

Nightingale Assassin
May 20, 2009
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Vkmies said:
SextusMaximus said:
Vkmies said:
SextusMaximus said:
Smeggs said:
Zhukov said:
Wait... I can't talk about gender politics?

Uh...

Well, can I at least imply that people that enjoy different games to me are inferior forms of life? After all, that's what gaming is all about.
Don't forget to call their sexuality into question.

OT: A kickstarter to fund a zombie apocalypse game. Here me out, now, I don't count things like L4D or RE zombie apocalypse, those are shooters and (very bland) horror. I want a proper ZA game, like the ARMAII mod DayZ. Huge open map, survivors can do whatever they want, your goal is literally survival and whatever is left to your imagination. You can start fires, hunt animals for meat, look for supplies, guns and ammo are very scarce, etc. Humans are a bigger threat than the actual zombies, which is how it should be.

I watched a few videos of that game and my mind was reeling. The intensity of some of the situations you are in is amazing.


An apocalypse should be intense, and it should be serious.
Gutted you need CO along with standard game for this, anything like it that just uses base ARMAII?
No, I really don't think so. Not to mention that the base ARMAII controls are absolutelly abysmal. Moving the mouse doesn't turn your character, it only moves your head, which means you have separate buttons to turn left and right. It's like playing a tank-game. Operation Arrowhead fixes this. Day Z is totally worth it, though. Like completelly. I haven't even touched the normal campaign yet. Just been playing Day Z. It's fucking awesome.
I'm so close to buying this game. You JUST need Arrowhead? not CO as well?

CO includes normal Arma II and Operation Arrowhead. At least that's what I thought. That's what I have and that's what you need... I think... 0_0
You're right, wasn't too familiar with the bundle name! I've got it now, gonna give it a go pretty soon, cheers for the help!
 

Chaosut

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Apr 8, 2009
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First Thought: A tactical shooter based entirely around recreating famous shootouts. For example, It would be incredible to play as a police officer desperately cowering behind cover and trying to take down Emil and Larry after they have exited the North Hollwood bank with fully automatic weapons and body armour. The level of realism would have to be close to that of Arma, so it would be extremely unforgiving and sometimes frustrating to play. But instead the mechanics and AI would be built from the ground up for these close quarters shootouts. Okay, that is my unrealistic dream game. As for something more practical, a video game adaptation of Apocalypse Now in 2D or 3D. I know that we have Spec Ops: The Line, but I'd really like to see an actual adaptation, and one with minimal emphasis on shooting. Could be an adventure game.

Second Though: Hiring decent script writers. It has happened from time to time, but not enough for my liking.

Third Thought: I don't think gaming technology really needs to be pushed much further. We're close to photo-realistic graphics and some games have life-like animations, and it seems like as though advancements in gaming technology in the near future will be focused on furthering eye candy and using different methods of input to draw in a wide audience.

Last Thought: I'm not sure what exactly would be the best for the industry, but I can say what I would like to see happen. Firstly, I want to see the boundaries of AI pushed further, which seems to be little interest to developers due to the emphasis on multiplayer. Also, I want to see the line between indie games and Triple AAA games blurre. Indie games usually set out for unique experiences, and to see that influence spread into mainstream gaming would be gerat. I know how much it is wishful thinking to expect such a thing, but I can dream can't I? Finally I want more games to be influenced by cinema when it comes to the visual aesthetics and some of the methods of storytelling/charaterisation, but not by limiting and toning down the gameplay.
 

Nieroshai

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Aug 20, 2009
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Don Savik said:
Mr. GameBrain said:
Because they can't fit an online auction into it... ;p
Does Starcraft 2 have microtransactions?
Or to make a relevant recent Blizz trend, it would be always-online and become locked forever if you try to use a console code in single player for any reason.
 

dreadedcandiru99

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Apr 13, 2009
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AngelBlackChaos said:
And Lastly: What do you think is missing in the Gaming Industry?
Hey, I want to expand on my previous answer: something like the Ouya [http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ouya/ouya-a-new-kind-of-video-game-console] is what's missing. The whole point of the thing is that it's a cheap, open-source console that anyone with a new, original idea can develop a game for, without having to go through a publisher to do it. It's still kind of a long shot, but I've decided to be cautiously optimistic here; if this works out, it could be exactly the shot in the arm that console gaming needs.
 

AngelBlackChaos

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Aug 3, 2010
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dreadedcandiru99 said:
AngelBlackChaos said:
And Lastly: What do you think is missing in the Gaming Industry?
Hey, I want to expand on my previous answer: something like the Ouya [http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ouya/ouya-a-new-kind-of-video-game-console] is what's missing. The whole point of the thing is that it's a cheap, open-source console that anyone with a new, original idea can develop a game for, without having to go through a publisher to do it. It's still kind of a long shot, but I've decided to be cautiously optimistic here; if this works out, it could be exactly the shot in the arm that console gaming needs.
I thought it was absolute genius that they finally started to develop one. My fiance was like Pleaseeeeee dear. At nearly the same time I was. Guess what we are getting.
 

dreadedcandiru99

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Apr 13, 2009
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AngelBlackChaos said:
dreadedcandiru99 said:
AngelBlackChaos said:
And Lastly: What do you think is missing in the Gaming Industry?
Hey, I want to expand on my previous answer: something like the Ouya [http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ouya/ouya-a-new-kind-of-video-game-console] is what's missing. The whole point of the thing is that it's a cheap, open-source console that anyone with a new, original idea can develop a game for, without having to go through a publisher to do it. It's still kind of a long shot, but I've decided to be cautiously optimistic here; if this works out, it could be exactly the shot in the arm that console gaming needs.
I thought it was absolute genius that they finally started to develop one. My fiance was like Pleaseeeeee dear. At nearly the same time I was. Guess what we are getting.
No kidding. I just chipped in my $99 yesterday.

Though I couldn't help but facepalm a bit when I saw the list of launch title requests Ouya was getting. Call of Duty? Assassin's Creed? Wow. Way to completely miss the point, people.
 

AngelBlackChaos

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Aug 3, 2010
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dreadedcandiru99 said:
AngelBlackChaos said:
dreadedcandiru99 said:
AngelBlackChaos said:
And Lastly: What do you think is missing in the Gaming Industry?
Hey, I want to expand on my previous answer: something like the Ouya [http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ouya/ouya-a-new-kind-of-video-game-console] is what's missing. The whole point of the thing is that it's a cheap, open-source console that anyone with a new, original idea can develop a game for, without having to go through a publisher to do it. It's still kind of a long shot, but I've decided to be cautiously optimistic here; if this works out, it could be exactly the shot in the arm that console gaming needs.
I thought it was absolute genius that they finally started to develop one. My fiance was like Pleaseeeeee dear. At nearly the same time I was. Guess what we are getting.
No kidding. I just chipped in my $99 yesterday.

Though I couldn't help but facepalm a bit when I saw the list of launch title requests Ouya was getting. Call of Duty? Assassin's Creed? Wow. Way to completely miss the point, people.
I'm not quite sure they will be getting that, exactly. Mainly because the old guard may not like it, and the larger publishers may be unwilling to make even part of it free. The list was more like a list of what people want, so Ouya can either try to get it, or work on finding developers to work on that sort of gameplay. So here is hoping that someone will be inspired by Ouya to be, I don't know, inspired by the scale of Assassin's Creed, and make some crazy wonderful game because of it. I think with the Dev kits being free, that will make things even more amazing. Kind of curious if steam will support it as well, as a way to connect to some of the games.I think valve is extremely curious how this will turn out, as they have always sort of disagreed with the "cost for updating" crap.
 

dreadedcandiru99

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Apr 13, 2009
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AngelBlackChaos said:
The list was more like a list of what people want, so Ouya can either try to get it, or work on finding developers to work on that sort of gameplay. So here is hoping that someone will be inspired by Ouya to be, I don't know, inspired by the scale of Assassin's Creed, and make some crazy wonderful game because of it.
Maybe that's it. I was just utterly baffled by the notion that somebody would want CoD ported to the Ouya. Because, yeah, it's never going to happen, and then we'll have a bunch of dumbass teenagers screeching "whaddaya mean, I can't have a less graphically impressive version of the same brownish military shooter I've already played to death?!"

Personally, I'd prefer that any would-be Ouya developers ignore the AAA-titles on this list altogether and come up with something that hasn't been done before. It'd be kind of a disappointment to hook up my new Ouya just to wade through a vast, churning sea of CoD-alikes.

AngelBlackChaos said:
Kind of curious if steam will support it as well, as a way to connect to some of the games.I think valve is extremely curious how this will turn out, as they have always sort of disagreed with the "cost for updating" crap.
Hmm, I don't know. Could the Ouya even handle most of the stuff on Steam? Even if it could, Steam itself is basically DRM (a somewhat less objectionable type of DRM, yes, but still DRM); on top of that, there are games on Steam that apparently come with DRM of their own. I'm not sure how well that would jive with Ouya's whole open-source, hack-anything, do-whatever-you-want approach.